Harry Turtledove V

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of buildings for a bowshot. When Smerdis the usurper had held Mashiz, Abivard
had
fought his way to the palace against soldiers and sorcery. Now, years later,
summoned by the man he'd helped place on the throne, he approached with hardly
less apprehension.
"Who comes?" called a sentry from above the gates. Oh, he knew, but the forms
had to be observed.
"Abivard son of Godarz, returned to Mashiz from Videssos and Vaspurakan at the
order of Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his days be long and his realm
increase."
"Enter, Abivard son of Godarz, obedient to the command of Sharbaraz King of
Kings," the sentry said. He called to the gate crew. With squeaks from hinges
that needed oiling, the gates swung open. Abivard entered the palace.
Almost at once an army of servitors swarmed upon and overwhelmed his little
army of warriors. Stablemen and grooms vanquished the riders. They waited
impatiently for the cavalrymen to dismount so they could lead the horses off
to the stables. Their armored riders accompanied them, reduced to near
impotence by having to use their own legs to move from one place to another.
Higher-ranking servants saw to Abivard and Roshnani. A plump eunuch said, "If
you will please to come with me, brother-in-law to the King of Kings, yes,
with your excellent family, of course. Oh, yes," he went on, answering a
question Abivard had been on the point of asking, "your conveyance and your
driver will be attended to:
you have the word of Sekandar upon it." He preened slightly so they would know
he was Sekandar.
"How soon will we be able to see the King of Kings?" Abivard asked as the
chamberlain led them into the palace itself.
"That is for the puissant Sharbaraz, may his years be many and his realm
increase, to judge," Sekandar answered.
Abivard nodded and kept on following the eunuch but worried down where he
hoped it did not show. If the King of Kings seldom left the palace and
listened to the advice of Sekandar and others like him, how could he have any
notion of what was true? Once, Sharbaraz had been a fighting man who led
fighting men and took pleasure in their company. Now... Would he even
acknowledge who Abivard was?
The apartment in which the eunuch installed Abivard and his family was
luxurious past anything he had known in Videssos, and it was luxury of a
familiar sort, not the icons and hard furniture of the Empire. Carpets into
which his feet sank deep lay on the floor; thick, fat cushions were scattered
in the corners of the rooms to support one's back while sitting. They had
other uses, too; Varaz grabbed one and clouted Shahin with it. Shahin picked
up his own, using it first for defense, then for offense.
"They're used to chairs," Abivard said. "They won't know how comfortable this
can be till they try it for a while."
Roshnani was speaking to her sons in standard tones of exasperation. "Try not
to tear the palace down around our ears quite yet, if you please." She
seamlessly made a shift in subject to reply to her husband: "No, they won't."
As if making a shameful confession, she added, "Nor will I, as a matter of
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fact. I got to like chairs a good deal.
My knee clicks and my back crackles whenever I have to get up from the floor."
"So Videssos corrupted you, too?" Abivard asked, not quite joking.
"Life in the Empire could be very pleasant," his wife answered as if defying
him to deny it. "Our food is better, but they do more with the rest of life
than we do."
"Hmm," Abivard said. "My backside starts turning to stone if I sit in a chair
too long. I don't know; I think their towns are madhouses myself, far worse
than Mashiz or any of the Thousand Cities. They're too fast, too busy, too set
on getting ahead even if they have to cheat to do it. Those are all the
complaints we've had about
Videssians for hundreds of years, and if you ask me, they're all true."
Roshnani didn't seem to feel like arguing the point. She looked at the
chambers in which the palace servitors had established them. "We are going
nowhere, fast or slow;
the God knows we shan't be busy, and the only way we can get ahead is if the
King of
Kings should will it."
"As is true of anyone in Makuran," Abivard said loudly for the benefit of
anyone in Makuran who might be listening. Without seeming to, though, his wife
had not only won the argument but pointed out that, palace though this might
be for
Sharbaraz, for Abivard and his kin it was a prison.
Winter dragged on, one storm following another till it looked as if the world
would stay cold and icy forever. With each passing day Abivard came more and
more to realize how right Roshnani had been. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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